Frances Farrand Dodge

Frances Julia Farrand Dodge was an American painter, illustrator, and teacher.

Early life and education

Frances Julia Farrand was born on November 22, 1878, in Lansing, Michigan. She was the eldest of four girls. Her father, Hart Augustus Farrand, had a grocery store in Lansing, and her mother, Effie Ann Shank was an accomplished wood carver who created much of the furniture for their home.
She studied art at the Michigan State University, Syracuse University, the Art Students League of New York, and the Pratt Institute. Among her teachers were Frank Duveneck, Lewis Henry Meakin, and Joseph Pennell.
In 1907, she married Arthur Charles Dodge in Lansing, Michigan. The couple moved to Chicago, where she received specialized training in watercolor with Frederic Milton Grant, a student of William Merritt Chase.

In the 1920s Dodge lived in St. Paul, Minnesota and Ohio, where she continued studying with Herman Henry Wessel. In 1920 she was appointed president of the Cincinnati Art Club.
In 1921, she won the second prize in the Fine Arts Competition at the Minnesota State Fair. In 1926 and 1927 she exhibited "Danberry County Fair" and "A wood" at the Exhibitions of Etchings organized by the Chicago Society of Etchers and the Art Institute of Chicago.
She exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy, and the National Association of Women Artists.
In 2011 the Women's Historical Center and Hall of Fame in Lansing featured works by her from their own collection in Selected Works from the Michigan Women’s Historical Center Art Collection.
In 2014 Olivet College, in Michigan included her in an exhibition of overlooked female painters titled "Beautiful Things: Still Life Paintings by American Women 1880–1940.